Heroes Unmasked: Calhoun teacher uses technology to help others

Dylan Suttles Hearst Illinois

Updated
8:16 am CDT, Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Calhoun High School industrial technology teacher Seth Grimes has used the school’s 3-D printer to create face mask holders. His wife, Stacey, who works at Jerseyville Community Hospital, suggested the project after seeing posts about such devices on Facebook.

Calhoun High School industrial technology teacher Seth Grimes has used the school’s 3-D printer to create face mask holders. His wife, Stacey, who works at Jerseyville Community Hospital, suggested the

Calhoun High School industrial technology teacher Seth Grimes has used the school’s 3-D printer to create face mask holders. His wife, Stacey, who works at Jerseyville Community Hospital, suggested the project after seeing posts about such devices on Facebook.

Calhoun High School industrial technology teacher Seth Grimes has used the school’s 3-D printer to create face mask holders. His wife, Stacey, who works at Jerseyville Community Hospital, suggested the

Thanks to Seth Grimes, the industrial technology teacher at Calhoun High School in Hardin, those face masks are becoming more comfortable for many.

Grimes is using the school’s 3-D printer to make face mask holders, an adjustable plastic strip that goes across the back of the head.

His wife, Stacey, works at Jerseyville Community Hospital. She had seen posts on Facebook about other people making face mask holders and she asked her husband if he could make them.

Grimes said nurses, doctors and all first responders have to wear surgical masks all day with little rest and no time to take them off.

“I thought it was a great idea to help them be a little more comfortable while they are working so hard,” he said.

“I’ve seen pictures online of how they have been rubbed raw behind the ears and on their faces,” Grimes said. “I thought this would make things a little easier on them.”

The original design came from a website called Thingiverse. The website includes photos of people who have been making face mask holders in their communities. The home page of the site includes other ideas designers are trying to create to help people during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I have made a little over a hundred so far,” Grimes said. “As of right now I plan on making at least 220.”

Grimes has made holders for the nursing home in Hardin, JCH Medical Group in Hardin, JCH in Jerseyville, a clinic in Chicago where a friend of his works and a hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, where his brother works.

“I plan to continue printing and giving them out to whomever needs or wants them,” Grimes said.